Chapter Summaries

Jiang Lu ignored the cultivators fighting over the Azure Luan phantom and searched Mount Qi for a treasure, only to find a strange bead that was Spirit Beast dung. When she sensed a hidden presence, a small black beast reluctantly emerged from behind a boulder.

• A Divine Beast’s pressure sent cultivators rushing toward the mountaintop, where the Azure Luan phantom appeared and they fought over it.
• Jiang Lu told Chi Li and Cangchen that the Azure Luan was Liu Qingqing’s fortuitous opportunity, then led her companions deeper into Mount Qi to search for treasures.
• A little black beast finished eating an eggshell and hid as Jiang Lu and her three Spirit Beasts entered the cave it had just left.
• Cutie found a gray bead in the cave, and Jiang Lu recognized its smell as Spirit Beast dung and dropped it in disgust.
• Jiang Lu heard the black beast snicker, threatened the hidden presence, and drew Qianming as the black beast came out from behind a boulder.

Jiang Lu formed an Equal Contract with a tiny black qilin, gaining a third Spirit Beast despite the usual limit of two. After leaving the barrier, she qualified to depart but teleported away when her spiritual power began to break through, while Cheng Xin mistakenly assumed she had been swept away by the crowd.

• Jiang Lu picked up the tiny black figure and offered to make it her beast pet, while Chi Li and Cangchen feared it would compete for her favor.
• The black figure recognized Chi Li and Cangchen as a dragon and phoenix, then sent its Divine Sense into Jiang Lu’s sea of consciousness and formed a contract as a qilin.
• Jiang Lu discovered that the contract created a third lotus seat and celebrated the possibility of contracting a Spirit Tortoise as well.
• Jiang Lu emerged from the barrier amid news that Liu Qingqing and Flowing Cloud Sect had obtained the Divine Beast Azure Luan, then qualified to leave by submitting her token and resources.
• As Jiang Lu’s spiritual power began to break through, she used a teleportation talisman to disappear; Cheng Xin and another disciple wrongly thought the crowd had carried her away.

Jiang Lu began her Golden Core tribulation in a remote ravine, while Qianming and her Spirit Beasts guarded her and helped withstand the lightning. After enduring the first twenty-five bolts without heart demons or wavering, she continued facing the Heavenly Dao’s test.

• Jiang Lu chose a secluded ravine, named the Dark Qilin Mingyue, and gave her Spirit Beasts treasures to replenish their strength before her breakthrough.
• Jiang Lu meditated within a Spirit-Gathering Array as spiritual energy gathered and immense tribulation clouds covered the ravine, drawing nearby cultivators to watch from a distance.
• The first violet lightning bolt struck Jiang Lu, and Qianming split it, absorbing half and tempering the rest before it entered her body.
• Jiang Lu endured the first twelve bolts as the lightning strengthened her body, while Qianming and the Spirit Beasts stood guard.
• Ye Qing noticed Jiang Lu had not answered his month-old message and wondered if she had gone into seclusion.
• Jiang Lu passed the heart-demon trials and continued through the twenty-fifth bolt with her Dao Heart steadfast, as Qianming blocked much of the lightning.

Jiang Lu survived her tribulation and reached the First Layer of the Golden Core, then received a Heavenly Dao Blessing that healed the ravine and strengthened her Spirit Beasts. After they celebrated their growth, she left for the nearest city with them.

• Jiang Lu endured the final lightning strike, formed a Golden Core, and settled her cultivation at the First Layer of the Golden Core.
• The tribulation clouds gave way to a Heavenly Dao Blessing, which entered Jiang Lu and restored the ravine’s plants.
• Chi Li and Cangchen recovered their strength as third-rank Spirit Beasts, while Mingyue and Cutie also announced their growth and new abilities.
• Jiang Lu decided she needed to raise her Spirit Beasts to at least the fourth rank before reaching the Nascent Soul.
• Jiang Lu left for the nearest city with the Spirit Beasts, and cultivators arrived afterward to find the ravine in ruins.

Ye Qing returned to Medicine King Pavilion and was ordered by Ye Qingluan to retrieve Jiang Lu from the Flowing Cloud Sect. In Crescent City, Jiang Lu avoided a pair of scammers and followed Mingyue’s lead to a Spirit Beast hall, where an unusual Spiritstone Turtle approached her.

• Ye Qing delivered a scroll to Ye Qingluan, explained how Jiang Lu had become his disciple and ended up at the Flowing Cloud Sect, then left to bring her back.
• Jiang Lu received Ye Qing’s message in Crescent City and replied that she would return as soon as possible.
• Jiang Lu suspected two cultivators were trying to lure her to the nonexistent Linglang Pavilion and avoided their scam.
• Jiang Lu bought food for her Spirit Beasts as they explored the city, then followed Mingyue’s report of a familiar aura to a Spirit Beast hall.
• A young Spiritstone Turtle that hid its true level sensed Jiang Lu’s gentle aura and crawled toward her.

Jiang Lu bought the Spiritstone Turtle and discovered it had awakened the Ancient Spirit Turtle bloodline, forming a soul connection with her and the other Spirit Beasts. The turtle revealed its ability to conceal cultivation, and Jiang Lu named it Qiming.

• Jiang Lu chose the Spiritstone Turtle and paid twenty high-grade spirit stones for it.
• Mingyue identified the turtle as an Ancient Spirit Turtle with the potential to become a Demi-Divine Beast or the Divine Beast Spirit Tortoise.
• Jiang Lu formed a soul connection with the turtle, and sacred light bound her contracted Spirit Beasts together while granting her an aura of trust and affinity.
• The turtle told Jiang Lu that it could conceal its cultivation and that its ability was shared with her through their soul contract.
• Chi Li teased Cangchen about their overlapping concealment abilities, and Cangchen sulked while insisting he had other talents.
• The Spiritstone Turtle asked Jiang Lu for a name, and she named it Qiming.

Jiang Lu collided with Senior Brother Bai and joined him in fleeing a level-four Vulture Beast. They escaped together, and Bai asked where she was headed.

• Jiang Lu collided with Senior Brother Bai while flying toward the Flowing Cloud Sect.
• Bai pulled Jiang Lu onto his spirit boat as a level-four Vulture Beast pursued him.
• Bai gave Jiang Lu a Storage Bag of offensive artifacts, and she used them to attack the beast as they fled.
• Jiang Lu raised a barrier and threw out a defensive formation while Bai maneuvered the spirit boat away from the beast.
• After they escaped, Bai let Jiang Lu keep the remaining artifacts and explained that a Sunrise Sect disciple had lured him toward the Vulture Beast’s nest.
• Bai asked Jiang Lu where she was heading.

Jiang Lu learned from Bai Yichen about the Cultivators' Grand Tournament, the Heaven's Chosen Competition, and the obstacles to ascending to the Upper Realm. She refused his invitation to train outside for several years and insisted on returning to the Flowing Cloud Sect alone.

• Jiang Lu realized Bai Yichen had taken the spirit boat away from the route to the Flowing Cloud Sect, and he invited her to train outside with him.
• Bai Yichen explained that the Cultivators' Grand Tournament would select a thousand young cultivators for the Heaven's Chosen Competition in the Xuanchен Spirit Domain.
• Bai Yichen told Jiang Lu that only cultivators who reached the Tribulation Transcendence Stage before age one hundred could ascend, and described heart demons and a possibly sealed Ascension Passage as barriers.
• Jiang Lu considered reconsidering when to form her Nascent Soul and decided she needed to ask her master about it.
• Jiang Lu refused to accompany Bai Yichen and said she would return to the sect alone, while Bai Yichen wondered whether to ask his master to recruit her to their peak.

Ye Qing waited at the Flowing Cloud Sect for his disciple Jiang Lu, while sect master Shi Yan demanded an explanation for Ye Qing’s arrival and the damage caused by his aura. Jiang Lu returned to meet Ye Qing, but Shi Yan charged in with the Grand Elder before Ye Qing could answer her question about leaving.

• Ye Qing released his Mahayana pressure across the area, and Shi Yan rushed over and ordered him to stop.
• Ye Qing told Shi Yan he had come to collect his disciple, and Shi Yan left to question the Grand Elder after demanding compensation for the repairs.
• Jiang Lu said farewell to Bai Yichen and returned to the Flowing Cloud Sect several days later.
• Jiang Lu found Ye Qing on the main peak and asked whether they would return to the Medicine King Pavilion.
• Shi Yan arrived with the Grand Elder and angrily called Ye Qing a shameless bastard.

Ye Qing took Jiang Lu from the Flowing Cloud Sect after Shi Yan discovered she was the girl Fu Yao had brought back. On the way home, Ye Qing learned that Jiang Lu had reached Golden Core in just one year and was stunned by her rapid advancement.

• Shi Yan recognized Jiang Lu, questioned her about how she had met Fu Yao, and learned that others had mistakenly thought her master had died.
• Ye Qing persuaded Shi Yan to let Jiang Lu leave, then announced that he would hold a disciple-acceptance ceremony and hurriedly took her away.
• Shi Yan and Elder Wen realized Ye Qing had left and called after him in anger.
• Ye Qingluan dismissed Shi Yan's spirit message asking her to discipline Ye Qing, deciding to wait and see what his new disciple was like.
• During the journey, Ye Qing asked Jiang Lu about her cultivation, sensed her Golden Core aura, and discovered she had reached the first level of Golden Core with a solid foundation.

Ye Qing explained to Jiang Lu that the approaching Heaven's Chosen Ranking would reveal cultivators’ strengths and expose her to being targeted in the later competition. After returning to Void City, he warned Ye Qingluan that Jiang Lu possessed the Chaos Spirit Root, and she asked who else knew.

• Ye Qing checked Jiang Lu’s contracted beasts and learned that all four possessed Divine Beast bloodlines.
• Ye Qing told Jiang Lu that the Heaven's Chosen Ranking would appear within five years and that ranked cultivators’ information would become public.
• Ye Qing explained that the later Heaven's Chosen Competition would let opponents target ranked contestants, with domains risking resources if their top three contestants lost their standing.
• Ye Qing showed Jiang Lu the five previous ranking lists and warned that her Chaos Spirit Root, talent, and Divine Beasts could put her on several lists.
• Jiang Lu suggested mastering every cultivation art to eliminate her weaknesses, while privately deciding not to tell Ye Qing about her photographic memory.
• After returning to Void City, Ye Qing rushed to Ye Qingluan and told her that Jiang Lu had the Chaos Spirit Root; Ye Qingluan asked who else knew.

Ye Qing and Ye Qingluan finalized Jiang Lu’s cultivation plan and prepared a grand apprentice acceptance ceremony while keeping her talent from drawing attention. As the ceremony began, Ye Qingluan took the seat of honor and Ye Qing waited below, with Jiang Lu still to be summoned.

• Ye Qing asked Ye Qingluan to help protect Jiang Lu from attention, and they settled her cultivation plan.
• Ye Qingluan summoned the Grand Elder to arrange Ye Qing’s apprentice acceptance ceremony, and invitations went out to the various factions.
• Fu Yao and other cultivators planned to attend, curious about the disciple Ye Qing had accepted after rejecting so many candidates.
• Three bells announced the ceremony across Void City, and the Medicine King Pavilion prepared its hall and Spirit Mirror for the gathering.
• Qin Yaner helped Jiang Lu dress in personal-disciple robes, and Ye Qing praised her appearance.
• The Grand Elder opened the ceremony, then Ye Qingluan took the seat of honor and Ye Qing ascended the apprenticeship seat.

Jiang Lu completed her apprenticeship ceremony and became Ye Qing’s first personal disciple in the Medicine King Pavilion. The ceremony ended with the guests approaching Ye Qing.

• Qin Yaner and several disciples brought Jiang Lu into the hall, where she formally greeted Ye Qing.
• Jiang Lu offered tea to Ye Qing, Pavilion Master Ye Qingluan, and the Grand Elder, receiving jade tokens and pendants in return.
• The Grand Elder praised Jiang Lu and urged Ye Qing to fulfill his responsibilities as her master, and Ye Qing promised to protect and guide her.
• Ye Qing and Jiang Lu swore their master-disciple covenant before the ancestral statues, and Jiang Lu’s Lotus Lamp settled beneath Ye Qing’s.
• Ye Qingluan announced Jiang Lu’s place in Ye Qing’s lineage and warned the other disciples not to mistreat her; the ceremony concluded, and the attending factions approached Ye Qing.

Jiang Lu reconciled with Fu Yao and the others after revealing that she had used the name Jiang Ye, then celebrated becoming Ye Qing’s disciple. The sect leaders learned that demonic cultivators had escaped into the Mortal Realm and began searching for someone capable of pursuing them there.

• Jiang Lu apologized to Fu Yao for joining the Medicine King Pavilion and defended her use of the name Jiang Ye by saying identity was something a person gave themself.
• Qin Yaner and Liu Qingqing teased Jiang Lu, while Fu Yao forgave her and reaffirmed their bond as senior and junior sisters.
• Ye Qing and Ye Qingluan accepted congratulations from the gathered factions after Jiang Lu became Ye Qing’s disciple.
• Sect Master Yu told Ye Qingluan, Ye Qing, Sect Master Shi, and Sect Master Xie that demonic cultivators had opened a passage to the Mortal Realm and escaped there.
• Ye Qingluan called for the escaped demonic cultivators to be eliminated, and the sect leaders discussed who could be trusted to survive in the Mortal Realm and return.
• Shi Yan suggested recruiting a cultivator from the Mortal Realm, but Xie Yu rejected the idea because such cultivators would be reluctant to return without guarantees.

Jiang Lu agreed to travel from the Immortal Cultivation Realm to the Mortal Realm to deal with demonic cultivators and earn Merit Power. After entering through a spatial passage, she arrived in a bamboo forest and sneaked into a temple, where she overheard a king asking a Daoist about his chance of unifying the realm.

• Ye Qing told Jiang Lu that demonic cultivators had gone to the Mortal Realm and explained why her origins and cultivation made her suited to pursue them.
• Jiang Lu used Qiming to divine the journey, saw a favorable sign, and agreed to go in exchange for compensation.
• Ye Qingluan confirmed Jiang Lu's decision, and the sect masters opened a passage to the Mortal Realm for her.
• Jiang Lu entered the passage while Ye Qing and the others concealed their auras from gathering tribulation clouds.
• Jiang Lu arrived in a bamboo forest, found a temple, and climbed into its courtyard after guards barred her from the entrance.
• Jiang Lu overheard a king ask a Daoist whether he could unify the realm amid a chaotic age.

Jiang Lu witnessed a Daoist priest foretell that an immortal would quell the troubles threatening the realm, while Liu Qingqing, Lu Lingfeng, and Xi Siyu were pulled through a mysterious portal into the mortal world. The three found their cultivation reduced to Qi Refinement and realized they had arrived in ancient times, where they encountered the Prince.

• Jiang Lu saw the Prince’s dragon aura and heard the Daoist priest prophesy an immortal’s role in calming the coming calamity.
• Liu Qingqing touched something in a cleared forest, opening a black hole that pulled her, Xi Siyu, and Lu Lingfeng inside; Fu Yao found a fallen jade that unleashed spiritual energy and loosened her bottleneck.
• Shi Yan told Ye Qing the three disciples had vanished, and Ye Qing divined that they would be safe and gain rewards.
• Liu Qingqing, Lu Lingfeng, and Xi Siyu woke in a desolate place with their cultivation reduced to Qi Refinement and suspected they had reached the Mortal Realm.
• The three encountered the Prince’s procession, and Liu Qingqing realized they had arrived in ancient times.

Lu Lingfeng, Liu Qingqing, and Xi Siyu encountered the steward of Prince Cheng's Residence, while Jiang Lu traveled toward the Imperial City to investigate demonic cultivators amid the Great Qian Dynasty's turmoil. In a village, she discovered that an ancient banyan tree had awakened a sliver of Divine Sense and asked it what troubled it.

• Lu Lingfeng claimed that he, Liu Qingqing, and Xi Siyu were disciples of a reclusive lineage, and the steward invited them to meet Prince Cheng.
• Liu Qingqing saw the prince and abandoned her fantasy of marrying a mortal ruler in favor of cultivation.
• Jiang Lu learned that the Great Qian Dynasty faced political turmoil and threats from foreign invaders, and she headed for the Imperial City to investigate demonic cultivators.
• Jiang Lu carried the Myriad Souls Banner and concealed You Meng in a jade sphere as she traveled through the mortal world.
• Jiang Lu sensed something unusual in a village, found an ancient banyan tree with a sliver of Divine Sense, and asked it why it was sighing.

Jiang Lu learned that demons were draining villagers’ life force and discovered that a group of black-robed devil cultivators had split up nearby. The villagers hailed her as a divine maiden, and she entered the village intending to draw the demons out and protect them.

• The banyan Tree Spirit told Jiang Lu that the county magistrate had refused to help the villages threatened by monsters.
• The village chief returned and warned the villagers that the authorities had no resources to spare, urging them to patrol and keep children indoors.
• The Tree Spirit revealed that around a dozen black-robed figures had passed through the region and that those who stayed were draining people’s life force.
• Jiang Lu learned that the demons should emerge that day, then asked the villagers whether they needed her to slay the evil creature.
• Jiang Lu appeared beneath the banyan tree, and the villagers knelt and called her a divine maiden.
• Jiang Lu accepted their reverence, followed them into the village, and told them to keep her arrival secret.

Jiang Lu ambushed and killed four injured demonic cultivators who had come to a village to hunt for human vital essence, absorbing their wicked souls into the Myriad Souls Banner. After confirming the region was free of Demonic Qi, she rewarded the banyan tree spirit that had helped her.

• Jiang Lu hid near the village and learned that Daoist Qian Xun had foretold immortals would enter the mortal world to aid the Human Emperor.
• Jiang Lu sensed two demonic cultivators outside the village, trapped them with her spiritual net, and absorbed their souls into the Myriad Souls Banner before burning their remains and possessions.
• Jiang Lu confronted two more demonic cultivators who were targeting a courtyard, restrained them, and absorbed their souls into the banner.
• Jiang Lu searched the region with her Divine Sense through the night and confirmed that no Demonic Qi remained.
• Jiang Lu gave the banyan tree spirit Wood Spirit Liquid as a reward for its service and encouraged it to keep doing good.

Jiang Lu traveled toward the Imperial City and encountered a spiritually aware White Tiger while it blocked the Eldest Princess’s procession. The tiger eagerly approached Jiang Lu, while the Eldest Princess’s jade pendant began to glow red.

• Jiang Lu left after telling the commoners that the evil had been eradicated, then changed course and flew toward the Imperial City.
• Qingling reported to the Eldest Princess that the Emperor was unlikely to survive the month and that the vassal kings, including King Cheng, were gathering troops and recruiting talent.
• The Eldest Princess ordered her forces to depart for the Imperial City the next day, then Jiang Lu stopped in a mountain ravine to meditate and sensed Merit Power.
• A White Tiger blocked the Eldest Princess’s road, and Jiang Lu used her Divine Sense to summon it; the tiger approached her, believing her to be a divine maiden.
• The Eldest Princess learned that the procession was in Burning Mountain’s territory, and her jade pendant began glowing faintly red.